Light of the Moon

Chapter 2

"Well, I think that you were about here." Nate said as he studied the ground. "Are you sure you don't remember anything?"

Sullivan pinched his chin as he was in deep thought. "I think I was over here."

Over the last 2 weeks both Nate and himself had been trying to jog his memory, but precious little had come back. Sully had to tell Nate that it was probably gone for good and they needed to go back to the scene. Nate had grudgingly agreed saying that Sully still needed to take it easy. Sully had just rolled his eyes and walked out of the hotel. He couldn't really blame the kid for being so worried. This trip was the first one that he agreed to go on since they'd gotten back from Iram. Whatever happened to him in there to scare him like this must have been bad. He still wouldn't talk about it other than to say he thought he'd lost him. Nate's clinginess and restless nights had spoken volume enough though.

"…..Earth to Sullivan.." Nate was waving a hand in front of Sully's eyes.

Sully ignored him and walked a little further towards a wall. Reaching out, he felt along the stones willing a memory to come back. Then turning suddenly, he almost ran deeper into the catacombs.

"Sullivan!" Nate yelled chasing after him.

Sully had only gone a few feet ahead and Nate had grossly misjudged the distance between them. Nate sidestepped him, barely, and tripped over some debris in the middle of the tunnel. He stumbled into a wall as he tried to keep himself from falling.

"Kid, I don't know what is going on in that head of yours.. but I'm not some feeble old man that can't take care of himself." Sully said as he massaged the bridge of his nose. Looking back at Nate he saw that he had his eyes downcast. He walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I can appreciate what you went through on our last trip, but this," he gestured around him, "Was supposed to be a vacation if you recall."

"I know," Nate said shrugging Sully's hand off his shoulder. "It's just…..I..I'm sorry."

Nate looked away from Sullivan, "I have been acting like a girl, haven't I?"

Sully looked past Nate to an area that they hadn't noticed before. He chuckled, Nate had been acting out of sorts lately, but he wasn't going to call him out on it. Victor just figured that the kid would realize what a ninny he was being and get over it soon enough.

Clearing his throat, Sullivan reached out his arm and placed it over Nate's shoulders gently guiding him into the area he just discovered. Nate was so despondent that he didn't notice at first what Sully was doing.

"It's alright, kid. I'm not sure I'd be any different if the roles had been reversed." He actually knew that he wouldn't, he hadn't. When he thought that Nate was dead he'd sunk down to a deep depression. He allowed Marlowe and her group to pull his strings like he was a puppet, until he heard Nate's voice calling to him in the desert.

"So, why don't we just move on passed this, and you can explain what the hell is in this room." Sully gestured upwards with his other hand.

Nate blinked a couple of times confused. "Crafty old bastard," he said as he lightly punched him the arm.

Sully watched Nate's face light up as he peered at the room from below. Not giving it a second thought Nate started to climb, finding footholds in areas Victor didn't believe was possible.

"You know, I think with all the sifting and picking at the rocks we did down there we must have knocked loose a key structural area of this floor."

"Leave it to you to point out the obvious."

"Very funny."

"I thought so."

"Hey, I think there's some rope over here. Let me test it, then, I'll send it down if it's any good."

Sully leaned back against the wall and started to light one of his infamous cigars. Immediately, he kicked off the wall and listened. He heard gears starting to move inside the wall and groaned.

"Uh… kid?" Receiving no response he raised his voice, "Nate!"

"Huh…. Yeah what's up?"

"Something's going on down here. I can hear gears moving in the wall."

Nate eyed him suspiciously, "What did you do?"

Sully just make a noise and starred at the wall. Within a few seconds a part of the wall began to slide down into the floor. Angling his flashlight into the darkened area Sully took a step forward in the newly opened spot.

"Huh….it's a staircase kid," looking up at Nate he just pointed back to the stairs and said, "I'm gonna take the easy way up."

Nate just chuckled to himself and watched Sully climb up. A moment later Nate heard the grinding of stones and saw the wall open up on the other side of the hole in the floor.

"Well this was unexpected."

"Ehh… not so much," Nate stated from across the room.

"Really, so you knew that this staircase would lead to this side of the room?"
"It was a good guess?" Nate said casting a sideways glance at Sully.

"Hey kid, didn't you say that some of Elena's family was from around this area?"
"Yeh, why?"

"Some of these trinkets look awfully familiar." Sully picked up something that looked like a very old sextant.

Nate finally started to take in everything around him. There were scrolls and blueprints strewn around the room, some on parchment, some papyrus. Upon glancing at them the differences of each spoke of their age and Nate couldn't make any sense of it.. Some only seemed to be about 4-500 years old, the ones that were in worst shape seemed a fair amount older than that. The largest one of the prints hung on the wall, in a frame that couldn't have been more than about 500 years old.

"Is… is that what I think it is?" Nate said as he moved around to get a better look.

Sully chuckled, "The frame, or what's in it?"

"Well now that you mention it..both." Nate said as he admired the craftsmanship of the frame.

"Original blueprints of the Pharos of Alexandria, wow. It's a wonder they survived this long."

"Nate, I don't have it in me to deal with anymore secret organizations. And this place reeks of it."

"Sully… where's your sense of adventure?"

"I think I left it back in Ubar." Sully grumbled under his breath.

Nate quirked an eyebrow hearing Sully, "So that's it, you're throwing in the towel now?"

"You're like a goddamn dog with a bone, you know that, and yes, I am gearing up for one of my 'I'm too old for this speeches'."

Nate huffed and looked away from Sully.

"Kid, look at me," he paused for effect refusing to continue until he had Nate's attention, "Thank you." He said when Nate turned his head again.

"Look, over the past few years our adventures have gotten more and more formidable. I only meant for us to come on this trip as a vacation. I think we've deserved it. I wasn't actually expecting us to find anything."

"Well, we did. Now what?" Nate said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Now, I say that we take a look around grab some things to take back with us and study them. Then we call your wife."

With that said, Nate's demeanor changed. "You really think that any of this could tie back to her family?"

"Anything is possible, but I think that it's more important that you keep Mrs. Drake apprised."

Nate picked something up off the table in front of him. It was a signet ring.

"Maybe you're right. It would be nice to have her with us from the start of one of these 'adventures'. Wouldn't hear the end of it if we started this without her, this signet ring has the mark of her family."

Author Notes:

kay, so I'm not 100% in love with this chapter... So I may tweek it out a little later, fair warning!